Ad-Free Apolyton: THE POLL

[yaroslav]

Originally posted by DanQ
yaroslav: First: $100US as a month fee? Goodness no. At the *most* this would be a high-end cost for a lifetime subscription if we were to implement it. To reiterate, though, no price is yet set in stone even for start-up.

With regards to your suggestions...

Re #1: Increased upload space might be considered but not as an initial offering.
Re #2: Antivirus scanning would not be possible with an email alias account as mail sent to it would never 'rest' on the server providing the alias.
Re #3: While I'm not certain how feasible this would be to implement, I'm not entirely comfortable with the idea in the first place. The subscription service is targetted for extras and non-access as well as non-content related additions/permissions.
Re #4: Way too elaborate for now. If this option were to be revisited, it would not be in the form of a physical shipment to a provided postal address but rather an electronic shipment to a provided email address. Shipping costs would be way too prohibitive otherwise. Yes, this would limit what types of material could be distributed, but the limitation is a sound trade-off to the alternative.

Keep the discussion coming!

-----------
Dan; Apolyton CS

Dear Dan,

100$ was my though-to-be per-year fee, not per month. 100$ per month would add to 1200$ per year, a thing that only Lefty can paid

I'm in a hurry because I'm in my parent's house (in my house I've not Internet yet), but I dare to add a few points about your replies, without trying to disturb you.

#1 - I have no too much use for it, but many people post JPEGs with PBEMs and deleting them because there is no enough space make some old PBEMs thread to look ugly... BTW, what about a system to make folder in your upload space, to organize your files?

#2 - The IEEE Computer society, an important engineering association, offered me an alias and antivirus-scanning with my anual fee... so maybe there is a way to offer the antivirus-scanning thing... or maybe I remember it bad.

#3 - Ok. In fact, I like your idea of keeping all the contents free and I've only words of thanks for that.

#4 - What is the cost of an internal shipment of a CD? 1€ or so?

[DanS]

This seems like a good idea, if the price roughly matches a magazine subscription. Something you can justify to your wife as about the same as a Newsweek subscription.

As Dr. Spike says, however, this is more of a donation mechanism than a fee for service. For me, I don't need any special added features, but I guess that an Apolyton-supporter badge or text next to my name would seem appropriate and appreciated. This would be like a trinket or a party favor for a $30 annual donation to the local public television station, as many Americans are accustomed to doing. No ads would be good, although I do block any pop-ups through my browser anyway.

If you want to give more than a party favor, I have seen other sites that have integrated a classifieds forum for people who want to buy/sell related stuff. They integrated this service into paypal/v-bulletin and its seemed to be automated.

[Zopperoni]

Originally posted by DanQ
Zopperoni: Ah yes, the idea of email aliases. First, see Markos' note on this above. Additionally: if this does get implemented at some point, note that it they would not be "@apolyton.net" but rather "@apolyton.com". The .net variant is for site administrative and staff assignment only.

Fair enough.

As a response to Markos: perhaps Dan and you could empower a team of members to (help you) process the making of these email forwards.

Originally posted by Locutus
#2 seems to be popular but has a major downside: you'll probably only get loads and loads of spam on that address. Lord knows we (staff members) are drowning in it already

I have the luxury of a provider that scans my inbox for both spam and viruses, plus my email client has a reliable spam filter, so I wouldn't be too bothered by it.
It also remains an option, so if one doesn't want it, then it wouldn't pose a problem.
And if becomes a problem, then it becomes the problem of the member and not Apolyton, IMO.

[BigFree]

Let's see.....

Pay for the right to browse Apolyton sans advertising....Are we talking about pop-ups here? Are we talking about the re-driects when downloading and attachment or files made available by Apolyton? Or is it all advertising period?

I already employ a pop-up blocker that works very well. I wouldn't pay more for someting I can already bypass myself.

As for the 're-directs', it's not often I hjave to download files or attachments, and it's not to bad to click the link of the re-direct page instead of waiting 15 seconds.

Now, if you are talking about removing all advertising for a paid subscription; it would depend on the price. I wouldn't pay more than a $1 a month for that.

Let's talk about the "goodies."

I would pay a subscription fee for an increase in PM space and an increase in upload space. I'm not sure I like the idea of people paying for larger, thus more annoying avatars. Not that everyone's avatar is annoying, but some are. I actually really like some of them.

How much would I be willing to pay for more space for PM's and uploads? How about a $1 a month for 5 times the allowed space now for PM's and a $1 month for every time Apolyton doubles your upload space; limited to doing so 3 or 4 times.

• 1 x 2 = 2 times the normal alloted space for $1 a month.
  2 x 2 = 4 times the normal alloted space for $2 a month.
  4 x 2 = 8 times the normal alloted space for $3 a month.
  8 x 2 =16 times the normal alloted space for $4 a month.

Also, what about being able to host other files that are not Civ related but are not offensive or illegal either? I might be willing to pay a small fee for that.

[PLATO]

Originally posted by BigFree
I already employ a pop-up blocker that works very well. I wouldn't pay more for someting I can already bypass myself.

This would be well and good if Mark had not declared this against the rules of the site.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by DanS
For me, I don't need any special added features, but I guess that an Apolyton-supporter badge or text next to my name would seem appropriate and appreciated.

That's a good idea. Maybe even several different titles depending on the donation. IEEE has that too.

[PLATO]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger


That's a good idea. Maybe even several different titles depending on the donation. IEEE has that too.

Are you suggesting different levels of membership? How would the levels of service differ to each? If you are talking about straight donations, then Dan has said that these will not be accepted. He has said that it must be fee for service.

[BigFree]

Originally posted by PLATO


This would be well and good if Mark had not declared this against the rules of the site.

I have never seen that. Not to say it isn't true, but I think that would be ridiculous. How would you even go about implementing it? It's not like a "pop-up blocker blocker" has been made.

[PLATO]

Originally posted by BigFree


I have never seen that. Not to say it isn't true, but I think that would be ridiculous. How would you even go about implementing it? It's not like a "pop-up blocker blocker" has been made.

Straight from the author:

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?postid=2696325#post2696325

[The Slayer]

Originally posted by mrmitchell
Dan-mark, could you please remove those "Admin" badges? They're distracting


As I understand, the system will go as:
-Nonsubscribers have no change.
-Subscribers recieve no ads.

So, AFAIK, the number of popups won't increase for nonsubscribers. But then again I'm only a Shadow Administrator.

Thanks, let's see what the gods say about it.

But, well, I use the Google bar, but this is one of the few sites that I allow pop-up...

And the only one I have got by far is the "smilie central" one, but in rarely occations.

The another "pop up" i got is the "you got a PM"

[BigFree]

Originally posted by PLATO


Straight from the author:


http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...25#post2696325

ROTFLMAO!!!

I did say that it is possible it was said, only that I did not see it.

But....

Like everyone is supposed to magically know to go and find and then read that thread and then that particular post in that thread! PLEASE!

If it's a "Rule", then an announcement should be made about it if they expect people to adhere to it. I've never know Apolyton to implement a rule that was only tucked into one thread/post that was not meant for an announcement like that. The thread looks to have been started due to malfunctioning pop-ups at that!

Like I said before as well; How would this be enforced?

[PLATO]

BigFree, I don't think that Mark believes that it will come to a situation where he will need to implement a denial of service type program. In reading the entire thread, Mark makes the point that it is an ethical decision that he is counting on all to make. He further states that using the ad blockers is harming Apolyton. You are an Emperor and have obviously spent a lot of time here. Did you think that the internet fairy paid the bills? No, you just assumed that someone else would, right? Or maybe you never thought of it at all.

The points are that 1.)this site costs money to run, 2.) none of us like pop-ups, and 3.) blocking pop-ups hurts the site.

Are you so financially destitute that you couldn't contribute $20-30 per year? Or do you just feel like it is someone else's responsibility to pay the bills and you should just take advantage of this service for free?

[Octavian X]

Well, I might pay. Then, of course, I know I won't, mainly because I'm a cheap #&%##@%. I like my stuff nice and very cheap. I'll stick to my pop-up blocker, thanks.

Basically, I wouldn't pay just to get rid of ads. The more the incentives, the better, and the more likely I might be partly encourged to think about possibly subscribing.

Also, just to pry all the money you can out of these [strike]suckers[/strike] posters, I'd offer the possibility of a donation, one that wouldn't garner any bonuses.

[Skanky Burns]

This feature basically is a donation. I mean, who doesn't have access to a popup blocker?

[Dinner]

It really depends what those "other services" are. If it's just ad free browsing, well, I can already do that with a pop up blocker.

If the total cost was something like $12 per year then it might be worth it though I'm sure MarkG already makes more then that per person off of the ads. Like I said if the "other stuff" was compelling then I might pay slightly more but not to much.